Falconer Smith

Failure of Cortisone or ACTH to Reduce Mortality in Irradiated Mice

Summary Intraperitoneal injections of cortisone, or subcutaneous injections of ACTH, failed to increase survival time or number of irradiated mice surviving.

Hemolysin Production in Irradiated Mice Given Spleen or Bone-Marrow Homogenate

Summary and Conclusions 1. Recovery of the production of hemolysin in irradiated mice receiving bone marrow or spleen cell homogenate occurred at the same rate as in litter-mate control mice exposed to 450 r of X-rays. 2. Recovery of antibody production in response to injected sheep erythrocytes is gradual and begins in the 4th week after exposure of mice to 450 r. Recovery of the hemolysin response is not complete even at 7 weeks after this dose of radiation since many of the mice had peak serum hemolysin titers that were below the limits of non-irradiated controls. 3. The time required for the development of peak titer following a single immunizing injection was not lengthened by exposure to 450 r whole-body irradiation.

Oxygen Consumption Following Whole-Body X-Irradiation of Guinea Pigs:

Summary Oxygen consumption in guinea pigs given 250 r, remains within the limits determined for their nonirradiated litter mates up to 13 days following irradiation.

Effect of Immunity on Resistance to Infection in Irradiated Mice and Rats.

Summary Immunization with Proteus prior to LD5 irradiation increased resistance of mice and rats to challenge with the living organism. Immunization with mixtures of the bacteria which occur most frequently in postmortem blood increased resistance to challenge in mice. Immunization with these mixtures did not increase survival in mice exposed to LD65-95 radiation.

Hemolysin Formation in Mice Following Partial, Total Splenectomy or Spleen Transplantation

Summary Serum hemolysin titers were correlated with weight of remnant spleen present in groups of partially splenectomized NIH mice sacrificed 5 days after intravenous immunization with sheep erythrocytes. Total splenectomy of mice completely suppressed hemolysin formation after intravenous immunization and was associated with a 27% decrease in amount of antibody formed, and a 24 hour delay required for development of peak serum titer. Complete suppression of antibody formation was partially reversed by autologous spleen transplants in splenectomized mice of 2 strains; by isologous transplants in Balb/c but not in NIH mice; and unaffected by homologous transplants in either of the 2 strains.

Antibody production in mice exposed intermittently to radium gamma rays.

Summary Exposure of groups of mice to a radium source providing 8.8 r or 2.2 r per 8 hour day for 51 days resulted in significantly lowered antibody titers. In these experiments the mice were immunized on the third day after the end of the radiation exposure and the serums were sampled on the 5th day after immunization. Antibody titers and leucocyte counts following a single exposure of the mice to an acute X-ray dose 4 days after the end of an intermittent exposure to 450 r of radium gamma rays provided no evidence that the prior exposure produced an altered radiation sensitivity to either the hematopoietic process or the process of hemolysin production. The possibility that antibody synthesis in response to sheep erythrocyte antigen and leucocyte production are independent processes during the recovery from irradiation is discussed.

Pipetting Machine with Rapid Preset

Summary A pipetting machine designed for the repetitive delivery of fluid volumes in the range of 0.01 cc to 0.60 cc has been described. A counter and its associated parts drives an accurately made stainless steel plunger forward displacing the fluid in a glass cylinder at such a rate that one count represents a delivered volume of 0.01 cc. Any given number of counts up to 60 may be selected allowing the operator to deliver that volume repeatedly to a large series of tubes. Accuracy of delivery is ensured since the linear movement of the plunger is directly proportional to the volume delivered; time is saved in pipetting operations involving large series of tubes and the fatigue of frequent pipette refillings is reduced.

Specific antibody titer and survival after total-body x-irradiation in rabbits and rats.

Conclusions 1. The capacity to produce specific antibodies as a function of the immune mechanism has been tested before irradiation in rabbits and rats with respect to survival following mid-lethal doses of X-radiation. No direct correlation was demonstrable between survival or survival time after X-ray and pre-irradiation anti-egg albumin or hemolysin titer in 79 rabbits or hemolysin titer in 35 rats. 2. A study of the induction phase of hemolysin production showed that the early attainment (6 or 7 days after immunization) of peak titer could be correlated with nonsurvival in 41 rabbits subsequently exposed to 850 r. The absence of a striking correlation between pre-irradiation specific antibody titer and X-ray sensitivity in rats and rabbits just described, suggests that the capacity of the immune mechanism for antibody synthesis in these animals is not directly related to their survival following mid-lethal irradiation.